Theology — Pomomusings

Practicing my Sketchnoting

March 11, 2013 by Adam Walker Cleaveland Leave a Comment

Marcus-Borg-Sketchnote

The-Sketchnote-Handbook I haven’t gotten to practice as much sketchnoting as I had hoped to over the past couple weeks since reading Mike Rohde’s The Sketchnote Handbook, but last Friday I went to hear Marcus Borg and got to practice a bit. Our church partnered with some of the other progressive churches in town and brought Borg here this past weekend.

I did some sketchnoting in a meeting I was in last week as well, though I didn’t end up filling up the whole page, so didn’t take a photo of that one. I did get to draw a few icons and images in those notes, so it was some good practice.

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Filed Under: Design, Ministry Tagged With: Marcus Borg, Sketchnotes, Sketchnoting, Theology

Theology Pub: Why We Do It

January 23, 2013 by Adam Walker Cleaveland 1 Comment

Photo of Theology Pub at The Playwright last week with Mark Yaconelli as our guest facilitator

Last week was our biggest Theology Pub ever. Perhaps it was the guest facilitator, Mark Yaconelli. Or perhaps it was the topic, “How to live without anxiety within in anxious world.” Or perhaps the stars were aligned just right.

But people kept coming and coming and we maxed out at 46 people. Many said they came because they saw the posters around town. Now, each time I am putting up posters around town, I am always saying to myself, “No one is actually going to come because they saw these….” And then we will have a week like last week. You can see the poster down below – I think the emphasis on the word “anxiety” is what caused many folks to be drawn to a night of conversation in a pub..

59966_374703889292045_1956607227_n It was a really great mix of people, including at least one woman in her 80s from our church, a freshman in college, people from our church, and random people from the community. Mark led an introduction and then people split up into small groups for conversation.

At one point I was talking to a young guy and he was sharing a bit of his story with me. He had grown up Catholic but isn’t really connected to the church anymore. And then he said something that I loved. He said something to the effect of:

“I’m not at the place in my life where I would even think about walking into a church…but then I saw the sign for tonight, and I figured that sure, I could walk into a pub to talk. That seemed safe.”

And that, my friends, is why I do Theology Pub.

Filed Under: Emergent, Ministry Tagged With: Beer, Ministry, Theology, Theology Pub

Theology Pub (2.0) in Ashland, Oregon

August 29, 2012 by Adam Walker Cleaveland 9 Comments

One of the things the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee here at First Pres in Ashland was really interested in during my interview was the Theology Pub I ran in Livermore. We ran the Livermore Theology Pub for about a year and a half, and it ranged from being a small group of Methodists, to a few nights when we had almost 20 people from Presbyterian & Methodist churches and the local Jewish synagogue. We had good conversations, and people seemed to enjoy it.

I was excited to start it up here in Ashland, and we finally got around to it this summer. I often get inquiries into the best way to start up something like Theology Pub, and so I thought I’d share how I started it here in Ashland.

Location

Obviously, location is key for something like this. We have a pizza joint across the street from our church that has a really great selection of beers on tap. I went over and approached them with my idea, and the owners were all for it. They were very supportive and excited about having our group meet there. I also met with the owner of a pub downtown, and after quite a bit of playing phone tag, and conversations, he agreed to give it a shot. We met at the pub for our second Theology Pub, and he loved it and said we’re welcome back any time.

I always meet with the owners and get their permission, because I post the location on the posters, and want people to know I’m going to be using their business’s name. Not everyone thinks it’s a great idea, though. We have an absolutely perfect spot in Ashland for Theology Pub: The Black Sheep Pub. However, when I got in touch with the owner, she didn’t want the place to have any connections to any religious organization, so she said no. It’s a bummer, but I am honoring her wishes. We could certainly just show up there and have a theological conversation, but with the type of advertising that I do, I don’t want to have problems with this place and their owner.

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